Twitter publishes 2016 diversity targets
Twitter is aiming for 35 per cent of its payroll to comprise women, and 11 per cent to come from “underrepresented minorities”.
The tech giant outlined its global goals for “a move diverse Twitter” in the coming year, and also set specific targets for its US business.
As well as increasing women in the company overall to 35 per cent, it wants to see 16 per cent of its tech roles and 25 per cent of its leadership roles in the US held by women.
Currently, 34 per cent of its global workforce is female, with 13 per cent in tech roles and 22 per cent in a position of leadership.
Meanwhile, it also wants to see underrepresented minorities make up 11 per cent of its global work force by 2016.
Twitter did not publish the ethnic make-up of the global company, instead choosing to only publish that of its US arm where 59 per cent of its employees were white and 29 per cent were Asian.
In America, it is also looking to increase underrepresented minorities in tech roles to nine per cent alongside an increase in leadership roles to six per cent.
The vast majority (72 per cent) of its leadership roles are currently held by people of white ethnicity.
“We want the makeup of our company to reflect the vast range of people who use Twitter. Doing so will help us build a product to better serve people around the world,” the company’s vice president of diversity and inclusion, Janet Van Huysse, wrote in a blog post.
“We’re holding ourselves accountable to these measurable goals, as should you,” she stated.
Earlier this year Facebook published its diversity figures, revealing a workforce that is also still mostly white and male.
Overall 32 per cent of Facebook's workforce is female with 16 per cent of the company's tech jobs held by women. Almost a quarter (23 per cent) of senior leadership roles at the social network are held by women.
In terms of ethnicity, white and Asian employees account for 91 per cent of the company compared to Twitter's 88 per cent workforce make-up.